AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2013

Melbourne: A battlescarred Rafael Nadal admitted he got lucky as he moved into the semifinals of the Australian Open on Wednesday with a 36, 76 (3), 76 (7), 62 win over Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov.
Dimitrov had three set points in the third that would have given him a two sets to...

Melbourne: Stanislas Wawrinka was a day away from playing his first match at the Australian Open and all everyone wanted to talk about was his last match at Melbourne Park in 2013.
Mind you, his fiveset, fourthround loss to eventual champion Novak Djokovic lasted 5 hours and 2 minutes, including 1210...

There is no doubt that he is one of the alltime tennis greats, but after his defeat to Andy Murray in the Australian Open men's singles semifinal on Sunday, the question has again come up what is Roger Federer's future?
The man himself was quick to address the question after...

Melbourne: In years past, Novak Djokovic marked his victories at the Australian Open with rowdy latenight celebrations and blearyeyed photo shoots the next morning in downtown Melbourne. This year's win made history but inspired a more sober reaction.
After beating Andy Murray to become the only man to win three consecutive...

Melbourne: Novak Djokovic became the first man to win three successive Australian Open titles in the professional era when he beat third seed Andy Murray 67, 76, 63, 62 in a battle of attrition on Sunday.
The Serb, who has now won four of his six grand slam titles in Melbourne,...

Melbourne: Jarmila Gajdosova and Matthew Ebden became the first locals to win a main draw Australian Open title since 2005 when they clinched the mixed doubles on Sunday. The Australian duo, both aged 25, beat the Czechpair Lucie Hradecka and Frantisek Cermak 63 75 in the final at Rod Laver...

Melbourne: Mike and Bob Bryan captured their record 13th Grand Slam doubles title, defeating the Dutch team of Robin Haase and Igor Sijsling in the Australian Open final 63, 64 on Saturday. The Americans had been level with the Australian legends John Newcombe and Tony Roche with 12 major titles.
The...

Melbourne: Victoria Azarenka will keep her No. 1 ranking after defeating Li Na to successfully defend her Australian Open title.
Azarenka needed to win Saturday's final to maintain her hold on the top spot, otherwise Serena Williams, who lost in the quarterfinals, would have become No. 1.
Williams will rise a place...

Melbourne: Victoria Azarenka has overcome an often hostile crowd to win backtoback Australian Open titles, beating Li Na 46, 64, 63 in a dramatic final that contained a break for fireworks, two medical timeouts and a nasty fall to the court by Li. The Chinese star first tumbled to the...

Melbourne: Novak Djokovic's love affair with Melbourne continued on Saturday as he completed his preparations for his Australian Open final against Britain's Andy Murray.
The Serbian world number one broke through for his first grand slam title in 2008 and has won three of his five major titles on the blue...

Melbourne: Eighttimes grand slam champion Andre Agassi has been amazed by the soaring quality of men's tennis since he retired and believes he would struggle to compete in what he believes is a golden age of men's tennis.
On his first visit to Melbourne Park since calling time on his career,...

Melbourne: Topseeded Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci of Italy have won the first Australian Open title of 2013, beating the unseeded Australian pair of Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua 62, 36, 62 for the women's doubles championship.
Barty and Dellacqua broke the Italian pair in the eighth game of the second...

Melbourne: China's Li Na declined to pass judgement on Victoria Azarenka's controversial medical timeout during her Australian Open semifinal match, but said she would not do it herself when match points were at stake.
Defending champion Azarenka was accused of gamesmanship by former players and pundits for taking a nearly 10minute...

Melbourne: On paper, Roger Federer should have little to fear from Andy Murray in Friday's Australian Open semifinal, holding a 30 record over the Scot in grand slams. But respected coach Darren Cahill says Murray has been galvanised by Olympic gold and has his best chance yet of grand slam...

Melbourne: Twotime defending champion Novak Djokovic advanced to his third consecutive Australian Open final with a 62, 62, 61 win over No. 4seeded David Ferrer in the semifinals on Thursday.
Topranked Djokovic was in dominating form, hitting 30 crisp winners in the 1hour, 29minute match. He is aiming to be the...

Melbourne: China's top women's tennis player Li Na on Thursday said after winning her semifinal encounter at the Australian Open that she has learned to cool down on court.
"It's like Hollywood, you know. You don't have to show your opponent what you are thinking," Li said at the aftermatch press...

Melbourne: It was all over for India at the Australian Open after Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi crashed out of the mixed doubles after losing their respective quarterfinal matches in contrasting fashion here on Thursday. Third seeds Sania and her American partner Bob Bryan were stunned 57, 46 by the...

Melbourne: Victoria Azarenka overcame a sore left ankle, some anxiety and a slew of frustrating forehand errors before fending off American teenager Sloane Stephens to reach the Australian Open final against Li Na. For the second time in two days, 19yearold Stephens sat patiently on a courtside chair during a...

Melbourne: China's Li Na has overpowered secondseeded Maria Sharapova 62, 62 to advance to the Australian Open final and a chance to capture her second Grand Slam title.
Li, who won the 2011 French Open and was the losing finalist here to Kim Clijsters the same year, broke Sharapova's service...

Melbourne: On the eve of the Australian Open, Novak Djokovic was asked if he had noticed anything different about Andy Murray.
"He has a shorter haircut," said the fivetime Grand Slam winner, smiling.
But then the topranked Djokovic turned serious, because Murray's makeover is no joking matter.
The 25yearold Scot is attempting to...

Melbourne: Roger Federer has beaten No. 7seeded JoWilfried Tsonga 76 (4), 46, 76 (4), 36, 63 to reach the Australian Open semifinals for a 10th consecutive year.
The 17time Grand Slam champion will next play U.S. Open winner Andy Murray, who advanced in straight sets earlier on Wednesday over unseeded Jeremy...

Melbourne: US Open champion Andy Murray has reached the Australian Open semifinals after a 64, 61, 62 win over unseeded Jeremy Chardy of France.
The 25yearold Murray had his service broken for only the second time while serving for the match. But he broke back in the next game to clinch...

Melbourne: It was curtains for Rohan Bopanna at this year's Australian Open after the Indian and his Chinese Taipei partner SuWei Hsieh made an exit from the mixed doubles event following a straightset quarterfinal loss here Wednesday.
Bopanna, already out of the men's doubles event, and Hsieh went down 26 36...

Melbourne: Serena Williams is out of the Australian Open after suffering an apparent lower back injury and losing her quarterfinal match 36, 75, 64 to 19yearold American Sloane Stephens.
Williams appeared to hurt her back while attempting to pull up short of the net during the eighth game of the second...

Melbourne: Second seeds Leander Paes and Elena Vesnina made a shock second round exit from the mixed doubles event of the Australian Open even as Mahesh Bhupathi and Nadia Petrova entered the quarterfinals, here Tuesday.
Paes and his Russian partner were outplayed by unseeded local pair of Matthew Ebden and...

Melbourne: Maria Sharapova has lost only nine games in five matches on the way to the semifinals at the Australian Open. Always the perfectionist, she sees room for improvement. Sharapova beat fellow Russian Ekaterina Makarova 62, 62 Tuesday and was asked afterward if she'd lost focus in only a few...

Melbourne: Novak Djokovic won his 19th consecutive match at Melbourne Park to keep alive his bid for a third successive Australian Open title, beating fifthseeded Tomas Berdych 63, 67 (1), 75, 64 in the quarterfinals Tuesday night.
Djokovic has now reached the semifinals at an 11th consecutive major, second only...

Melbourne: India's Mahesh Bhuptahi and Russia's Nadia Petrova overcame stiff resistance from Katarina Srebotnik and Nenad Zimonjic to enter the mixed doubles quarterfinals of the Australian Open here Tuesday.
The fifth seeds beat the SlovakianSerbian pair 36, 62, 105 in the second round at Melbourne Park.
BhupathiPetrova now await the winners of...

Melbourne: Three times in the first four sets, David Ferrer faced the prospect of being ousted of the Australian Open by a fellow Spaniard who'd never beaten him in a dozen competitive matches.
The No. 4seeded Ferrer survived once in the third set and twice in the fourth when No. 10...

Melbourne: Russian Ekaterina Makarova is eager to meet Maria Sharapova in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open on Tuesday even though her compatriot has been one of the dominant women players of the tournament. The 19th seed met Sharapova in the same round last year at Melbourne Park, with the...